Washing machine appliances generally form wash and rinse fluids to clean clothing articles disposed within a wash basket of the appliance. The wash fluid can include, for example, water and various additives, e.g., detergent, fabric softener, and/or bleach. The additives can be mixed with water within a wash tub of the appliance to form the wash fluid. Various additives also may be added to water to form the rinse fluid.
To introduce one or more additives into the wash tub, a user can manually add the additive to the wash tub and/or the wash basket. For example, after starting the appliance, the user can pour detergent directly into the wash basket. Conversely, certain washing machine appliances include features for receiving additives and dispensing the additives during operation of the appliance. For example, an additive dispenser may be mounted to or directly beneath a top panel of a vertical axis washing machine appliance. The additive dispenser can receive an additive and direct the additive into a wash basket of the appliance. Similarly, a horizontal axis washing machine appliance can include an additive dispenser that receives an additive and directs the additive into a wash basket of the appliance.
Typically, the additive contained in the additive dispenser is flushed from the dispenser into the wash basket of the appliance through an influx of water into the dispenser. Usually, additive dispensers dispense a single dose of an additive during a wash or rinse cycle of the washing machine, i.e., the additive is dispensed once during a wash or rinse cycle. However, it may be desirable to dispense multiple doses of the additive, e.g., to dispense one portion of the additive at one point during a cycle of the washing machine and a second portion of the additive at a second, later point during the cycle. For example, the performance of an additive such as detergent may be enhanced by adding a portion of the detergent at the beginning of an agitation phase of a wash cycle and adding the remainder of the detergent at a later point in the agitation phase of the wash cycle, i.e., after articles within the wash basket have been agitated for a certain time period. Further, providing multiple additive doses from a single dispenser reservoir may efficiently utilize available space for the additive dispenser and may simplify a system for supplying water to the dispenser.
Accordingly, a washing machine appliance having features for dispensing an additive in multiple stages without requiring a complex additive dispenser or a complex system for providing water to the additive dispenser would be useful. Moreover, a method for operating a washing machine appliance having features for dispensing an additive in multiple stages would be advantageous. Also, a method for operating a washing machine appliance having features for dispensing an additive in multiple stages without requiring a complicated control methodology would be beneficial.